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Withcraft in African: Albinism Bear the Brunt

At least 15 albino children have been abducted, wounded, gang-raped or murdered ahead of national elections in East Africa in acts related to witchcraft.

The Red Cross states that witchdoctors are paying up to $75,000 for a complete set of albino body parts to use in their practices, as they are believed to bring wealth, good luck and predict the future.

More attacks against albino children occur ahead of elections with many candidates believing they can improve their chances. Lawmakers banned witchcraft in January in Tanzania, and four people have since been convicted over the 2008 killing of a woman with albinism. At the same time, the UN has raised concern over the death sentences pronounced for some of the over 200 witchdoctors arrested in the last months.

Situation in Malawi

Mbango Chipungu has a good job and lives in an upmarket suburb of the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, but he can’t remember the last time he went out at night.

Certainly not since early 2015, and the start of a wave of “ritual killings” of people born with albinism: an inherited genetic condition in which the body fails to produce enough pigment, or melanin.

Since January 2015, there have been 17 recorded murders of people with albinism in Malawi, and 66 cases of abductions and other related crimes.

Anyone born with albinism in Malawi is living in fear of attack, no matter how socially connected one is.

Albinism affects roughly one in 17,000 people globally, but in sub-Saharan Africa the incidence is higher, typically as common as one in 5,000. In Tanzania, it is one in 1,400.

People with the genetic trait often experience taunting and discrimination. They can be accused of being “ghosts” or “witches” or derided in other ways for somehow being less than human.

There is also a belief in the magical properties of their bodies. Their “difference” supposedly boosts the efficacy of potions or amulets made from their hair, eyes, skin, limbs and organs. People born with albinism are hunted, killed and dismembered, or their graves dug up by criminal syndicates in search of their bones.

The belief – common in so many religions – is that literal or symbolic cannibalism allows communication with spirits and deities, and is used by those wishing for power and money.

These “occult economies” – the use of magical means for imagined material ends – mirror the mysteries of the 21st century market, where money flows seemingly abundantly and effortlessly. In the almost literal worshipping of wealth, people turn to familiar arcane forces for a helping hand.

Two “albino hunters”, arrested for the kidnapping and murder of 17-year-old Davis Machinjiri, had smuggled the body across the border to Angonia in Mozambique, where they had been promised $66,000 by “witch doctors”.

Jeremiah Banda, a Malawian traditional doctor, believes the wave of killings has spread from Tanzania. “The use of albino body parts in magical medicine is common among East African traditional doctors, mostly those from Tanzania, where there is a belief that albinos possess special powers and their parts can bring good luck when used in magic concoctions,” he said.

Body parts are bagged, transported and sold in “underground markets.

According to a 2009 report by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, an intact body of someone with albinism in Tanzania is worth around $75,000 – suggestive of a trade only affordable for the already rich and powerful, whose wealth is probably not based on productive labor.

Signs of Success

The Tanzanian government’s response was initially slow in having an impact, but it has included a ban on “witch doctors” and a crackdown on unlicensed traditional healers, with more than 200 arrested in the first three months of 2015. It has also, in some cases, placed children with albinism in protected homes.

Malawi is now the centre of international attention on the issue. Amnesty International said in a statement earlier this year that “it is deeply worrying that there’s poor security for people with albinism in Malawi despite an increasing number of attacks against them”.

The situation is a potent mix of poverty, witchcraft beliefs and market forces, which push people to do things for profit.

Malawian President Peter Mutharika has ordered the police to “shoot on sight” anybody caught in the act of abducting or killing people for ritual purposes.

A more practical move is for the courts to hand out tougher sentences to people found guilty of persecuting people with albinism. In a landmark case last month, the Association for People with Albinism in Malawi applauded a 17-year jail sentence for a man found guilty of the murder of his niece.

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Published by alaiwah

ALAIWAH'S PHILOSOPHY
About 12 years ago, while studying Arabic in Cairo, I became friends with some Egyptian students. As we got to know each other better we also became concerned about each other’s way of life. They wanted to save my soul from eternally burning in hell by converting me to Islam. I wanted to save them from wasting their real life for an illusory afterlife by converting them to the secular worldview I grew up with.
In one of our discussions they asked me if I was sure that there is no proof for God’s existence.
The question took me by surprise. Where I had been intellectually socialized it was taken for granted that there was none.
I tried to remember Kant’s critique of the ontological proof for God. “Fine,” Muhammad said, “but what about this table, does its existence depend on a cause?” “Of course,” I answered. “And its cause depends on a further cause?” Muhammad was referring to the metaphysical proof for God’s existence, first formulated by the Muslim philosopher
Avicenna.
Avicenna argues, things that depend on a cause for their existence must have something that exists through itself as their first cause. And this necessary existent is God. I had a counter-argument to that to which they in turn had a rejoinder. The discussion ended inconclusively.
I did not convert to Islam, nor did my Egyptian friends become atheists. But I learned an important lesson from our discussions: that I hadn’t properly thought through some of the most basic convictions underlying my way of life and worldview — from God’s existence to the human good.
The challenge of my Egyptian friends forced me to think hard about these issues and defend views that had never been questioned in the milieu where I came from.
These discussions gave me first-hand insight into how deeply divided we are on fundamental moral, religious and philosophical questions. While many find these disagreements disheartening, I will argue that they can be a good thing — if we manage to make them fruitful for a culture debate.
Can we be sure that our beliefs about the world match how the world actually is and that our subjective preferences match what is objectively in our best interest? If the truth is important to us these are pressing questions.
We might value the truth for different reasons: because we want to live a life that is good and doesn’t just appear so; because we take knowing the truth to be an important component of the good life; because we consider living by the truth a moral obligation independent of any consequences; or because we want to come closer to God who is the Truth. Of course we wouldn’t hold our beliefs and values if we weren’t convinced that they are true. But that’s no evidence that they are.
Weren’t my Egyptian friends just as convinced of their views as I was of mine? More generally: don’t we find a bewildering diversity of beliefs and values, all held with great conviction, across different times and cultures? If considerations such as these lead you to concede that your present convictions could be false, then you are a fallibilist.
And if you are a fallibilist you can see why valuing the truth and valuing a culture of debate are related: because you will want to critically examine your beliefs and values, for which a culture of debate offers an excellent setting.
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